Changes of the West “After feeding this morning, I cleaned ditch with the ditcher, also some with the shovel. This afternoon I plowed and harrowed 5 acres.” Those words were my Father’s, recorded March 19th, 1934. He kept a daily diary that year from his one-room range outpost in Rangeley, Colorado and his description of…
Animals, particularly dogs have been studying humans for centuries. Since dogs proved they were better companions than meals they have heeled mankind across the globe, often herding game for them and cleaning up the scraps around camp that would otherwise lure bears or other unwanted pests. Humans learned to understand that animals warned of danger…
On a random winter evening I can hear one of the chairs in the living room, wham, wham, wham as it slams back and forth on its’ rockers. When I go to investigate, I see Erma the cat, wide-eyed, fur roughed up on her back standing a bit askew and motionless before she jumps back…
Wandering the lower hills as I do fairly often, I came upon a small rusty paint tin that at one time held watercolors and a brush and in the middle a mixing well. We have all seen them and perhaps used them as kids. I was on a no name ridge at the time of…
As we have listened to industrial grade BS over some of the last 6 -7 years, it would be good to move just a wee bit past it by understanding our democracy/republic. The very ones who are targets of the wrath of a sore loser are part of a body that, although needing adjustment only…
I was devastated and left the house to sit on the bench outside where the air is clear, and I can gaze at our beginnings as I ponder our near end of our democracy. It wasn’t the abortion question I was reacting to so much as the fact that Roe vs Wade was affirmed in…
I did not sleep until about 3:00 a.m. Tossing and turning pinned in last nights time. War erupted, and not just any war, but the very form of government that stands for freedom and homegrown ideas are in the path. People mention freedom here, in fact shout it out as if we are locked up,…
I read the other day of Joan Didion’s passing from our literary world and today caught a descriptive piece about her writing by New York Times former book critic, Machiko Kakutani. Didion died Thursday, December 23, 2021 at the age of 87, but may well live into history as one of the greatest American essayists,…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg saw into the future as if through a magical looking glass. Her summaries and court opinions always took the high road, while at the same time giving us an okay to take our Constitution as a living document that breathes with changes in our country. To be sure, she understood it was…
With Donald Trump as President life has been a whirlwind of news, tweets and late night television. So much so, you almost can’t remember what happened this week. Not a whole lot of it of any substance as far as average Americans go, and not much for the folks who elected him, but a pretense…